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ShangLuda Admirable film.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Fleur Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

missxmusic hard to put this film into words, it is so vivid you can almpst feel the cold air of spokane winter in its scenes. The auntis not 'unstable' she is played to perfection by lahti, who is so real in the role it is absolutely scary. she , along with the oldest girl, are in their own world for survival from some extremely crazy tragic events. The flood house scene and railroad tracks and 'girls week off by the lake from school' are classics. The mother's final scenes and scary music interlude haunts forever. This even inspired my trip on a train up to spokane.It shows the eldest girl staring at her shoes, and we think of how much childhood is to lose, and how overwhelming it is , the possibility of a relative losing custody, that we will do anything t o preserve some happiness, childhood ONLY comes once, and the heavy Grey sadness these girls have is unbearable. The neglectful aunt who collects brown old newspapers to the rooftops. all classic showings of those who ride the train rails and what MAKES us hobos. Drifting our hands out of the boat in the midnight lake

goltermann I wish this movie were available on DVD!!!Christine Lahti does her typically superlative job of depicting a woman whose values come from the heart rather than deriving from the dictates of western civilization. As always, she expresses the best of the free spirit which I believe can be found in any one of us.Two young sisters end up in the custody of their aunt Sylvie, who has spent her life having abandoned the trappings of western civilization in general and of consumerism in particular.In order to support her young nieces, Sylvie returns from the wild, so to speak, and helps to raise the girls in a manner which allows them to see the freedom of disassociation from society and its dictated "norms".

kagriver i own "housekeeping" and have watched it more times than I can remember. (as well as read the equally wonderful book)my favorite movie-i doubt any could ever take its place.it is perfect in every way.

adam1117 Though the box (identifying it as "A tidy comedy") is one of the most flagrant cases of false advertising ever, this is a wonderful movie. Set a bit after 1960 (you can tell because the song the mother sings in the ten-years-before opening was a hit in 1950) in a small town that hasn't caught up with the rest of the world yet, it shows a woman who isn't so much a free spirit as a person who just can't settle into basic routine. Mentally ill? Maybe, maybe not. But, if so, it's a pretty swell madness. Beautifully shot, wonderfully acted. Haunting is an excellent word. Just don't get it expecting a tidy comedy, whatever you do.